1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball catching tool such as a glove or a mitt for baseball or softball, and more particularly, it relates to the structure of a ball catching tool enabling a ball player to readily catch a ball.
2. Description of the Background Art
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 55-78969 (1980), Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-109863 (1982), Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-173772 (1982) and Japanese Patent No. 2,950,319 disclose gloves for baseball or softball as exemplary conventional ball catching tools.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 55-78969 describes a baseball glove formed by providing index and middle fingers, middle and ring fingers and the bases of merged portions between the index, middle and ring fingers at large intervals in a pocket-side inner leather member while continuously providing extensional members of the bases, folding the extensional members frontward and stitching the same on an outer leather member.
Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-109863 describes a baseball glove formed by increasing the intervals between first to fourth finger cushions of a pocket-side outer leather member. In this baseball glove, strips provided on the bases of the finger cushions of the outer leather member are folded toward the back of the glove, while edge members provided along the outer peripheral edges of the finger cushions are detoured toward the back of the glove along the strips on the aforementioned bases so that the finger cushions and the strips are stitched on edges of a back-side leather member of the glove.
Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-173772 describes a glove for baseball or softball formed by providing arcuate projections extending toward fingertips on the bases of interdigital portions of a pocket-side leather member and stitching the arcuate projections on finger stalls through a back-side leather member and reinforcing leather members so that the pocket-side leather member is expanded and the stitched portions are sunk on the bases of the interdigital portions provided with the arcuate projections. Japanese Patent No. 2,950,319 describes a baseball glove assembled by inserting an inner core bag into an outer bag. In this baseball glove, the outer bag is formed by a surface member and a back member, while a notch is provided between little and ring fingers extending from a palm portion of the surface member as an adjustable portion for defining a prescribed interval. A projection or a notch is provided between little and ring fingers of the back member for locating the ring finger backward with respect to the little finger of the surface member by the interval defined by the notch. The respective fingers are brought into contact with each other through the projection or the notch of the back member, which in turn is stitched on the surface member for assembling the baseball glove. Thus, a step is formed for locating a ring finger stall at the back of a pocket with respect to a little finger stall.
In the aforementioned baseball glove described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 55-78969, the extensional members of the bases are stitched on the outer leather member in order to reinforce the fragile interdigital portions. However, the extensional members of the bases are not intended to fix the positions of the fingers of a ball player using this baseball glove, and hence the ball player cannot fix the positions of his/her fingers and adjust the intervals between the fingers. Therefore, the fingers may so unstably move in the glove that it is difficult to efficiently transmit the power of the base player""s hand to the glove or the optimum position for catching a ball fluctuates. Therefore, the ball player using this baseball glove disadvantageously readily fails to catch the ball.
Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-109863 disclosing the ball catching tool formed by merely increasing the intervals between the finger cushions of the outer leather member describes no means for fixing the positions of the fingers of a ball player using this glove. Therefore, the ball player cannot fix his/her fingers in the glove when catching a ball, and may readily fail to catch the ball similarly to the above.
Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 57-173772 disclosing the baseball glove formed by merely stitching the arcuate projections on finger stalls describes no means of fixing the positions of the fingers of a ball player in the glove either. Therefore, the ball player cannot fix his/her fingers in this baseball glove when catching a ball, and may readily fail to catch the ball similarly to the above.
Japanese Patent No. 2,950,319 disclosing the baseball glove formed by merely locating the ring finger stall at the back of the pocket with respect to the little finger stall describes no means of fixing the positions of the fingers of a ball player in the glove either. Therefore, the ball player cannot fix his/her fingers in the glove when catching a ball, and may readily fail to catch the ball similarly to the above baseball gloves.
The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the aforementioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a ball catching tool enabling a ball player to reduce the possibility of failing to catch a ball by fixing the positions of the fingers of the ball player in the ball catching tool.
The ball catching tool according to the present invention comprises an outer leather member and an inner leather member inserted in the outer leather member, while the inner leather member has a plurality of thumb and finger portions receiving the thumb and the fingers respectively, and an extensional portion is provided on at least one portion between the bases of the finger portions for extending the interval between the bases.
The interval between the bases of desired ones of the finger portions can be increased by providing the extensional portion between the bases of the finger portions of the inner leather member. A ball player inserting his/her hand into the inner leather member for wearing the ball catching tool provided with the extensional portion as described above can hold his/her fingers in a state spread on the extensional portion. Thus, the ball player can fix the positions of desired ones of the fingers in the ball catching tool.
The aforementioned thumb and finger portions preferably have upright portions uprighted from a palm-side inner leather portion and arranged in the vicinity of interdigital portions between the fingers. In this case, the aforementioned extensional portion is preferably provided between the upright portions.
The aforementioned inner leather member typically includes a palm-side inner leather portion located on the palm and a back-side inner leather portion located on the back. In this case, the palm-side inner leather portion preferably has an extensional member, which in turn is preferably stitched on the back-side inner leather portion for forming the extensional portion.
The aforementioned thumb and finger portions typically include a thumb portion receiving the thumb, an index finger portion receiving the index finger, a middle finger portion receiving the middle finger, a ring finger portion receiving the ring finger and a little finger portion receiving the little finger. In this case, the extensional portion may be provided between the base of the middle finger portion and the base of the ring finger portion, or between the base of the index finger portion and the base of the middle finger portion.
The aforementioned outer leather member preferably includes a plurality of thumb and finger stalls receiving the thumb and the fingers respectively, and a clearance is preferably provided between the bases of the finger stalls on a position corresponding to the aforementioned extensional portion.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.